geekyAt 43 years of age John F. Kennedy was the youngest man ever elected President (but not the youngest to become President, Theodore Roosevelt achieved that milestone when he became president upon the death of William McKinley). Kennedy was also the first (and so far the only) Catholic to become President. On November 22, 1963, when he was barely past his first thousand days in office, John Fitzgerald Kennedy was shot and killed as his motorcade drove through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. Kennedy was also the youngest President to die in office. Rather than focus on Kennedy's death, as this community has done on previous November 22nds, let's look at his life and his presidency.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born on May 29th, 1917, in Brookline, Massachusetts, the second eldest child of Joseph P. Kennedy and the former Rose Fitzgerald. He graduated from Harvard in 1940, and joined the Navy during the second world war. In 1943, the PT boat that he was captain of was rammed and sunk by a Japanese destroyer. An injured Kennedy led the survivors, swimming through perilous waters to safety. When he returned home from the war, he became a Democratic Congressman from the Boston area, and was elected to the US Senate in 1952. He married Jacqueline Bouvier on September 12, 1953. In 1955, while recuperating from a back operation, he reportedly wrote Profiles in Courage, which won the Pulitzer Prize in history. However his close adviser and speechwriter, Ted Sorensen, stated in Sorensen's 2008 autobiography that Sorenson was a co-author of the book. To date, Kennedy is the only President to have won a Pulitzer Prize.
In 1956 Kennedy almost won the Democratic nomination for Vice President, at a time when this was decided at the convention (rather than in the primaries) in a contested battle. Four years later, Kennedy won his party's nomination for President on the first-ballot. In the Presidential election of 1963, millions watched Kennedy's famous television debates with the Republican candidate, Richard M. Nixon. He won the election by a narrow margin in the popular vote, but by a larger one in the electoral college, 303 to 219. His Inaugural Address contained the memorable words: "Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country."
As President, his economic programs launched the country on its longest sustained expansion since World War II. He formed the Peace Corps, to aid developing nations. He also pursued the race for the conquest of space and boldly predicted that the United States would land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. But it was on the international front that he faced his biggest challenges. Shortly after his inauguration, Kennedy permitted a band of Cuban exiles, already armed and trained, to invade their homeland. The attempt to overthrow the regime of Fidel Castro was a failure. Soon thereafter, the Soviet Union renewed its campaign against West Berlin. Kennedy replied by reinforcing the Berlin garrison and increasing the Nation's military strength, including new efforts in outer space.
The Russians sought to install nuclear missiles in Cuba. When this was discovered by air reconnaissance in October 1962, Kennedy imposed a quarantine on all offensive weapons bound for Cuba. While the world trembled on the brink of nuclear war, the Russians backed down and agreed to take the missiles away. Kennedy argued that both sides had a vital interest in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and slowing the arms race, and a nuclear test ban treaty was signed in 1963.
Years after Kennedy's death, it was revealed that in September 1947, at age 30, and while in his first term in Congress, he was diagnosed with Addison's disease, a rare endocrine disorder. In 1966, his White House doctor, Janet Travell, revealed that Kennedy also had hypothyroidism. He also suffered from chronic and severe back pain.
Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, at 12:30 pm Central Standard Time on Friday November 22, 1963, while on a political trip to Texas to smooth over some tensions in the Democratic Party between liberal Ralph Yarborough and conservative John Connally. While his motorcade passed through Dealey Plaza, Kennedy was shot once in the throat, once in the upper back, and with the fatal shot hitting him in the head. He was taken to Parkland Hospital for emergency medical treatment, but was pronounced dead at 1:00 p.m.
Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested for the murder of a local police officer, and was subsequently charged with the assassination of Kennedy. He denied shooting anyone, claiming he was a patsy. Oswald was killed by Jack Ruby on November 24, before he could be tried. President Lyndon Johnson created the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination. That body concluded that Oswald was the lone assassin. The United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Martin Luther King, Jr. That committee concluded that Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy. The committee was unable to identify the other gunmen or the extent of the conspiracy.
Kennedy is buried in Arlington National Cemetery at a spot overlooking the capitol. His resting place is marked by an "eternal flame."